Oncoplastic procedures enable the removal of bigger tumors, allowing for breast conservation in circumstances when mastectomy would otherwise be required. For a study, researchers sought to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of patients undergoing oncoplastic surgery compared to those undergoing conventional breast-conserving (CBC) or mastectomy.
Patients with BIRADS IV-VI lesions were suitable if a ≥10% or larger resection of the breast volume was planned. Patients were given the option of either CBC or oncoplastic breast conserving (OBC). For comparison, patients with mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) were also included. At 12 months, the primary goal was breast self-esteem as measured by the Breast Image Scale (BIS), with secondary endpoints including perioperative morbidity and QoL measured by the BREAST-Q questionnaire.
The research covered 205 individuals from 2011 to 2016. CBC was given to 116 patients (56.6%), OBC to 46 (22.4%), and MIBR to 43 (21%). Women in the OBC group were more likely than those in the CBC group to develop tumors larger than 2 cm (34.7% vs. 17.5%, respectively). MIBR patients were more likely to develop tumors larger than 5 cm than CBC and OBC patients (23% vs. 1% and 10%, respectively). After 12 months, the BIS and BREAST-Q improved in each group but did not differ substantially across groups at any time. Surgical complications (seroma, hemorrhage, infection, necrosis) occurred at a higher rate in the OBC and MIBR groups.
OBC and the MIBR enable the removal of bigger tumors while maintaining the same quality of life as CBC.
Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S174391912200471X
